7.20.2015

July 19, 2015: Let me tell you a story of a perfect land, a perfect city,
where the wine is magnificent, and the food, well: there’s nothing better.

This is Evansville. This is southern Indiana. This is
honesty.

Let me say that you only get to understand Evansville once
you leave it. Drive to a bigger city, try to navigate its traffic, sit amongst
its neighborhoods, its breezy winds, and then tell me that you don’t understand
Evansville. Tell me that you don’t understand what it takes to leave something
you love. Tell me that you don’t know what matters most of all. Tell me that I
don’t know what I’ve lost.

And then send a wine my way. Really, any wine — any Pinot
noir, any chardonnay, any Cabernet sauvignon, any wine that makes a difference,
because this is a wine column. This is a column about a social drink, a tonic,
an elixir that makes us all feel better about what we do. You have a glass of
red wine when you come home from work. You have a glass of white wine when you
order a meal at Bonefish Grill. And Champagne, Napoleon Bonaparte’s favorite
drink? Well, that’s for the truest of hearts. At least, I’d like to think so.

This is wine, on the down low. It’s basic, after all,
because this is Indiana. This is Evansville. This is us, honest to goodness,
all down to earth, and easy to relate to, or so the old slogan goes. We are
Mike Pence, just farther south, on the very edge of what we don’t say, of what
we don’t acknowledge.

Because I like a challenge, I’m going to suggest you choose
a Pinot noir. They’re prickly that way, those Pinots, because they only seem to
succeed in certain places, in certain milieus. Thin-skinned and difficult,
their grapes are famously finicky, troublesome and yet full of potential. Very
few people manage to handle them well. Yet when they do, you notice. You notice
quite well.

Wine critic Andrew Jefford was in the midst of commenting on
Syrah when, it could be said, Pinot Noir grabbed the camera. He put it plainly:
She’s a diva.

“In other words, just getting her on stage costs a huge amount
of money and effort, and even then there’s no certainty that she will open her
mouth and sing. If she does, she may be sublime, and no one in the theater will
ever forget that combination of beauty, power and lyricism.But her moods are notorious, she’s prone to flu and
sore throats, she doesn’t like most of the cities where she’s asked to perform
and her agent is always holding out for a better deal.”

In other words, not everyone would choose to take on Pinot
Noir. This is a grape, mind you, with bunch rot and downy mildew tendencies.It’s also sensitive to yeast strains,wind, frost,soil
types and pruning techniques.It’s your basic
grape varietal nightmare.Enter David Lett. It
was Oregon in the late 1960s, and he had noticed that Willamette Valley, where
he later made his famous1975South BlockPinot Noirfrom Eyrie Vineyards,has
a similar climate as Burgundy, France. That’s the home of the most famous Pinot
Noir, by the way.When Lett took his South Block
to Paris for an international competition against French red Burgundies and won
third place, Oregon ended up on the wine map. Well, France’s wine map, anyway.And on that point, I think we can all agree: Maps
matter, but only to those who choose to follow them.

After that, Oregon was the Newest World in what was already
known as wine’s New World.Robert Drouhin, a
French wine magnate, established his Domaine Drouhin Oregon winery in 1987.Others followed suit, digging for metaphorical gold
in the wine world’s newest, most popular metaphorical gold mines. And why not?
That’s what people do when opportunity strikes. That’s what you do when
everyone else is doing it, too. Everyone wants a piece of the glory.

These days, Oregon Pinot noir has a reputation for
excellence — some of it deserved, others not so much. Yet that’s the downside
to fame; it brings attention to what shouldn’t be discussed, or even tolerated,
and forces us to make room for both. Those seeking a claim to fame insist: This
is part of the game, too. The more talented sigh: Every good wine must have a
bad wine to be compared to. So here you have it: Good wine versus mediocre
wine, Oregon against Oregon, and all here in Evansville. I can’t imagine
anything better. The safest battles, after all, just use words, even if none of
those words are safe at all.

If you’re looking for a good wine under the $20 bar, the
best I’ve found recently was a 2013 Erath Pinot Noir from Dundee, Oregon. This
wine evoked flavors of cola and cherries, was fuller bodied, and had balanced
tannins and acidity. $16.99. Binny’s Beverage Depot.

The it’ll-likely-be-better-next-year choice was the 2013 A
to Z Pinot Noir, which was strong on vegetable notes but weak on cola flavors.
I’m usually a big fan of A to Z, which has crept up in price over the years,
largely because it’s usually a decent under-$20 bottle. But, not this vintage.
My advice? Widen your perspective and look to other shelves. Money doesn’t make
the diva. $18.59. Schnucks on Washington Avenue.

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writers:

this column runs as "bottle by bottle" in the evansville courier and press twice or so a month. the focus is on wines, food and how they intersect. if i receive gifts, i'll tell you. photo credits are noted. i buy most of my wines from winetree, varsity liquors, schnucks, the fresh market, kwik liquor and winestyles (in evansville, ind.); big red liquors and sahara mart (in bloomington, ind.); vecchio's italian market (in newburgh, ind.); whole foods (in st. louis); and binny's (in chicago.) also, i do try a number of wines that i don't necessarily mention in the column, through travels to france and other markets (germany, hungary, italy, etc.) that don't sell wines i can find here. those experiences factor into my tasting descriptions, even if i don't mention them in the column, so keep all that in mind. i write the column to tell my readers in the evansville, ind., area what i consider to be flavorful, balanced and good-value wines for sale in this area.